Reflections on Women in Network Engineering

Some serious conversations occurred this week via Twitter re: why there aren't very many women in the network engineering career field. Just wanted to address some of the things that were said.

UPDATE: He clarified, sort of. It's all mostly the same.

6:02 - I answer the question

[CloudBart]

Keep rocking the scene, fools tend to air their own dirty laundry in due time. I have some background context and the community reaction is deserved, those were not the words of a leader who acknowledges their platform and impact.

[MikeTVest]

Toxic environments (both in the workplace and on social media platforms) kill motivation and desire faster than anything. And that goes for everyone regardless of race, gender or career field. People need to do everything they can to eliminate that toxicity and keep everyone motivated.

[megra]

Yes! Some workplaces may have a culture. Please break the stereotypes in this field. It's important to focus on individuals' capabilities rather than assuming one gender is more capable than another, to perform tasks effectively and efficiently is not determined by gender but by skills, knowledge, and experience.

[SFF]

Just based on the wording of his tweet, and without knowing anything else about your field, my initial reaction would be that his comments sound like confirmation bias. In other words, is he *only* noticing lack of "desire" from his women students and not his men? I can't imagine literally *every* man who's ever taken his classes has come out bursting with excitement and energy and a powered-up drive to excel. He's probably had hundreds of men who don't keep going, but he's only making a mental note of it when the women don't, because he's biased towards expecting failure from women.

[twylastudio]

I really like Jeremy, I have learnt a lot from him, I recently followed you and John Capobianco, and I’m learning a lot too. For a while I just felt his comment was misconstrued, i still think so. However your experience and conversations with women shows how passionate you are about helping and so I get that it didn’t come out well. I hope he comes back clearer and moving forward we all look for solutions.

[thfc]

I'm sorry you have to put up with this kind of treatment (I often feel guilty to say things like this being a white middle aged male who doesn't face this kind of BS). I think it right that you should feel pissed off, and Jeremy should re-evaluate his own beliefs and unconcious bias.

Don't let this stop you from being the best NetEng you can be, I know it won't - onwards and upwards ;)

[dotday]

Great video Trackerpacer 🤩 He needs to educate himself and grow as a person. His view on women seems to come from the 18th century. Also, it’s ok to just be ok, even if you’re a woman. You said that and I take it with me everyday when, or if I doubt myself. Keep being you!!🤩🔥

[scorpio_]

I have been lucky that I've worked with amazing knowledgeable women in the network engineering field, I do agree that there's fewer women in this line of work but the ones who are passionate about learning will make better professionals better teammates than men. I hope more women join the club everyone is welcome

[DaveITGuy]

Maybe he fails to instill passion or desire to learn networking in his students. I've taken plenty of classes where, at the end, I've been like, "Ok, so this isn't for me."

[djninjanz]

We want more women and girls in tech and network engineering, "represent the whole population"

[hanabolik]

This tweet is fueling my next study sesh

[willbreeze]

Great video, I hope he sees it and understands where he went off the rails.

I know from watching him for years that he is extremely passionate about networking and cultivating that passion in others. I wonder if what he was trying to get at was, what is that spark, that drives you to be an awesome network engineer so that others can try and tune into the same mindset? I think you nailed it here. You are taking this extremely seriously because everyone else had a huge head start, and now you are playing catch up. The good news is that you are already passing average guys like me who has been a CCNA for years, and has only read through 1/3 of my ENCOR book.

I hope you have a chance to talk through this with him. Their platform reaches a lot of people, and you two could work together to shine a spotlight on this issue; using your “why” to inspire a wide audience. Or maybe you’ve already done that, and like you say, it’s just time for the rest of us to move on.

[Squossifrage]

He's not worth your time & energy

[JohnMiller-zrpl]

You can force a dog to stand in 2 legs, will it be walking around in 2 legs...

[yagami]

he meant that women are not generally (means usually but not all) interested in hard stem as men do. it is biology. men are interested in things women are interested in people.